Rotary engine.



C. A. RHOADBS.

ROTARY ENGINE.

APPLIOATION mum JULY 27,1912.

1,096,862. Patented May 19, .1914.

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G. A. RHOADES.

ROTARY ENGINE.

APPLICATION rum) JULY 27,1912.

1,096,862. Patented May 19, 1914.

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CHARLES A. RHOADES, OF PAMPA, TEXAS.

ROTARY ENGINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 19, 1914.

Application filed July 27, 1912. Serial No. 711,869.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, CHARLES A. Rnonons, acitizen of the United States, residing at Pampa, in the county of Grayand State of Texas, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inRotary Engines, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to rotary engines in which any type of motive fluidcan be used, but particularly adapted for use with steam.

One object of my invention is to provide a rotary engine in which therotor casing and rotor are independently supported each with relation tothe other, and in this connection to provide means for adjusting therotor casing vertically in a frame so as to center the shaft withrelation to the rotor casing and take off wear from the walls of theshaft opening.

A further object is to provide a rotor casing, one-half of which forms alive steam chest wherein the motive fluid is confined behind the bladesof the rotor, the cross sectional area of the remainder of the casingbeing greater than the facial area of the blades whereby to form anexhaust chamber into which the fluid passes from the live steam spaceand by which back pressure is greatly reduced.

Other objects will appear in the course of the following description.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings wherein:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a rotary engine constructed inaccordance with my invention. Fig. 2 is a face view thereof. Fig. 3 is avertical section on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a perspective viewof one portion of the rotor casing.

Corresponding and like parts are referred to in the followingdescription and indicated in all the views of the accompanying drawingsby the same reference characters.

Referring to the drawings, 2 designates one section of the casing of arotary engine and 3 designates a complemental section de signed to fitupon and cover the section 2, these sections 2 and 3 together inclosinga rotor space within which the rotor 5 is disposed. This rotor space iscircular in form as is the rotor 5 and passing through the cen ter ofthe rotor space is a shaft 6 upon which the rotor 5 is mounted to turn.

The rotor 5 comprises a circular body portime having radially disposedrecesses in its periphery within which the blades 7 are carried. Theseblades are narrower than the width of the rotor as illustrated in Fig. 3and are forced outward and against the outer wall of the rotor casing bymeans of springs 8 which are mounted in the bottom of the recess.Preferably these blades move on pins 9 projecting from the bottom ofeach recess.

The upper portion of the casing 2 supports a valve chamber 10. The space4L extends upward as at 11, the walls being gradually contracted, thisspace 11 being provided to accommodate a pivoted abutment 12. Thisabutment is triangular in form and is mounted upon a rock shaft 13projecting through the walls of the casing. The lower face of theabutment is concavely curved so that when the abutment is turned in onedirection or the other, the curvature of the under face will mergegradually into the curvature of the face of the piston space asillustrated in Fig. 2. The abutment is of such size that it may berotated to a small extent within the space 11 so as to bring one or theother horn of the abutment into contact with one or the other side ofthe space 11, depending upon the direction in which the rotor is moving.Thus if the rotor is to move in a counter-clockwise direction, theabutment is turned as illustrated in Fig. 2 so as to leave a steam inletdesignated 14 on one side, the under face of the abutment acting todepress the blades 7 against the force of the springs 8 so as to permitthe blade to pass the end of the abutment. As soon as a blade has passedthe end of the abutment, it springs outward into contact with the innerface of the circumferential wall of the casing 2.

The valve chamber 10 is connected by means of a duct 15 with the space11 as illustrated in Fig. 3 and this valve chamber at its forward end isconnected in turn by a duct 16 with any suitable source of steam.Disposed within the valve chamber are valves whereby the inflow of steamto the rotor casing may be regulated. One of these valves is designated17 and is mounted to rotate upon a shaft 18 passing through the valvechamber and geared to the rotor as will be later described. This valve17 is provided with ports 19 which are adapted to register with the portof the duct 15 so that as the valve 17 rotates, the duct will beintermittently con The valve 20 carries at its end a handle 22 wherep bythe valve 21 may be manipulated.

The shaft 18 carries at its end the gear wheel 23 which meshes with agear wheel 24 carried .on a stub shaft 25 and this gear in'turn mesheswith a gear 26 carried upon one end of the shaft 6. Thus power istransmitted from the shaft 6 to the shaft 18 so as to rotate the valve19 in time with the rotations of the rotor.

The abutment 12 is a reversing abutment,

that is, the position of the abutment deter-' mines whether the rotor isto move in one direction or the other and for the purpose ofmanipulating the abutment to change the a direction of movement of theengine, the; abutment is carried upon a shaft 13 which projects :outthrough the face of the casing and is provided with a handle 27 Byshift- 1 ing this handle through an arc of a circle in l one directionor the other, 7 the abutment 1 may be shifted from the position shown inFig. '2 to an oppositely disposed position where the opposite horn ofthe triangular abutment valve will extend downward toward the face ofthe rotor and the other horn be raised so as to shut off the steam spaceand direct the steam in the opposite direction to that in Fig. 2.

It is to be particularly noted that while the upper portion of the rotorspace 4 has a width equal to the width of the blades 7, the lowerportion of the rotor space has a width greater than the blades 7 andequal to the width of the body of the rotor. The

purpose of this is to provide an exhaust space designated 28 whose crosssection shall be greater in area than the facial area of the blades 7and to provide a live steam space designated 29 whose cross sectionalarea shall be the same as the facial area of the blades. Thus as a bladepasses the abutment 12, the steam will issue behind the blade and forceit forward, no steam being permitted to pass around the blade but beingheld between the two walls of the casing, the periphery of the rotorbody, the outer wall of the casing and the blade. As soon, however, asthe blade has passed into the exhaust space 28 which, as before stated,

has across sectional area greater than the facial area of the blade, thesteam can pass around the edges of the blade pass out and. spacedadjusting screws disposed on of an exhaust opening 30 formed in thelower portion of the rotor casing and connected to an exhaust pipe 31.In order to provide the live steam space before referred to, the lowerportion of the casing is formed wider below a horizontal line cuttingthrough the axis of the rotor than the upper portion of the casing sothat as each blade passes into this widened portion, the steamheretofore confined behind the blade can escape around the side edges ofthe blade and have free passage to theexhaus't opening 30. By thisprovision back pressure is materially reduced. This tends also to reducewear on the shaft caused by the back pressure of the exhaust. 7

Referring now to Fig. 1, it will be seen that the rotor casing issupported in a frame comprising a base 32 having uprights 33 and 3 1,the uprights 33 being spaced from the uprights 34 so as to permit therotor frame to slide vertically in the guides formed by these spaceduprights. The rotor casing is also provided with oppositely disposedoutstanding vertical guide lugs 35 which hold the rotor casing from anyturning movement. At the same time the rotor casing may be easily movedup or down within the guides formed by the standards 33 and 34. Thestandards 33 and 34 are provided with the transversely extendingsupporting beams 36 each formed at its middle with a journal box 37 ofany suitable character through which the shaft 6- projects. Thus therotor is supported 'bythe shaft 6 upon the cross beams 36.

In order to support the casing of the rotor, I provide a plurality ofjack screws designated 38 which extend upward from the base 32 andengage the rotorcasing. I

i have illustrated for this purpose four jack screws 38 arranged inpairs but I do not wish to be limited to the use of jack screws for thispurpose nor to this arrangement. By turning the ack screws in onedirection, the rotor casing may be vertically adjusted so that theweight of the casing is not borne upon the shaft 6 and so that theshaf-tt may be supported entirely independently of the rotor casing. Itwill be seen that by this arrangement the necessity of packing rings iseliminated as the wear upon the casing can be adjusted by the set"screws. If there I isany wear in either of the main boxes .37,

the casing will give to it. If the shaft ran '120 in boxes in the rotorcasing and either of these boxes should wear, it would cause a greatfriction in the cylinder and a leakage of steam. By constructing the"engine as heretofore-described, this leakage is reduced.

What I claim is: p 7

1. A rotary engine including a rotor cas- 7 ing, a shaft passingtherethrouglh, a rotor thereon, bearings supporting the rotor shaft,

each side of the central vertical plane of the casing engaging the rotorcasing for vertical movement whereby the rotor casing may beindependently adjusted relative to the shaft.

2. A rotary engine including a rotor casing, a shaft passingtheret-hrough, a rotor thereon, spaced standards forming guides betweenwhich the rotor casing is mounted for Vertical movement, and means forvertically raising or lowering the rotor casing between said guides,said means being disposed on each side of the middle vertical plane ofthe casing.

3. A rotary engine including a base, opposed pairs of spaced standardsmounted upon the base, a rotor casing extending at opposite points ofits diameter through the space between the standards and having verticalguides engaging said standards, means disposed below the casing forraising or lowering it, transverse beams mounted upon the standards,journal boxes on said beams, and a rotor shaft passing through thecasing and mounted in said journal boxes.

4. In a rotary engine, a rotor having a circular body portion andradially projecting blades, and a rotor casing inclosing said rotor, oneportion of the rotor casing being contracted to the width of the bladesso as to form a live fluid space, the other portion of the rotor casingbeing transversely wider than the blades so as to form an exhaust space,said casing being formed With a motive fluid inlet opening into the livefluid space and an exhaust opening from the ex haust port opening in theexhaust space.

5. In a rotary engine, a rotor having a body and outwardly moving springpressed radial blades, said blades b8111 less in width than the Width ofthe rotor bod and a rotor casing inclosing said rotor, the inner face ofthe casing being concentric to the axis of the rotor, the upper portionof the casing being contracted in width to the width of the rotor bladeswhile the lower portion of the casing is transversely greater in widththan the rotor blades but less in width than the body of the rotor so asto provide an exhaust space, the casing being formed with an inlet portopening into the live fluid space and an exhaust port opening from theexhaust space at the middle thereof.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

CHARLES A. RHOADES.

Copies of this patent may be obtained tor five cents each, by addressingthe Gommlzsloner of Patents,

. Washington, D. G.

